Security measures tightened around main streets of Ukraine's capital

By Jeyhun Aliyev

KYIV, Ukraine (AA) - Security measures were tightened around the main streets in Ukraine's capital Kyiv as the Russia-Ukraine war entered its eighth day on Thursday.

Around Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the iconic central Independence Square of Kyiv located on Khreshchatyk Street in the Shevchenko region, a number of armed soldiers were seen patrolling the makeshift checkpoints on the streets.

Piles of sand, sandbag barricades used for blocking roads, wooden crates, and bricks piled high along with the Czech hedgehog tank barriers and concrete columns were placed on the main streets of Kyiv, a city of 3 million people, as part of the measures.

Ukrainians have been using old cars and big metal garbage carts to erect barricades and improvised checkpoints to block the roads amid Russian attacks.

They have also been digging deep trenches and erecting barriers with giant truck tires topped with sand, with a blue-yellow national flag waving above them.

While similar checkpoints were seen across the entire city, main bridges except a few have been closed to traffic.

Vehicles are stopped at the checkpoints for ID and documents check-up by a mixture of armed volunteers of the Territorial Defense structure, active police officers, and Ukrainian soldiers who guard these barricades.

Some checkpoints are also guarded with armored military vehicles with a cannon, mainly covered by a green camouflage tarpaulin.

Kyiv is under curfew from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. local time (1500 to 0600GMT) every day to ensure the safety of people and more effective defense from Russian forces and sabotage groups.

"The Ukrainian army and Ukrainian people are real heroes! The Russian terrorists who came to our land felt it! The truth with us, the whole world with us, the victory with us!" Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted on Thursday.

Since Feb. 24 -- days after Russian recognition of two separatist-held enclaves in eastern Ukraine -- Russia's war on Ukraine has been met by an outcry from the international community, with the EU, UK, and US implementing a range of economic sanctions against Russia.

Russia has been further isolated after its planes have been barred from flying in European and Canadian airspace, and a number of its banks have been kicked out of the SWIFT international banking system.